Impunity

Nine international freedom of expression, press freedom, and professional journalists’ organisations, including the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), condemn the lack of justice for the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia a full year after three arrests were made in connection with the case. Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb that detonated near her home in Bidnija, Malta on 16 October 2017. On 4 December 2017, 10 people were arrested in connection with Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, of whom three men were charged with murder, the criminal use of explosives, criminal conspiracy, and involvement in organised…

Today, marking the ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists’, the Safety of Journalists Platform launches a special page, which presents 16 cases of unsolved murders of journalists in the Council of Europe member states, as submitted by the partner organisations, including the European Federation of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists. These cases are listed on the platform as impunity for murders, highlighting deficiencies in investigations and failure to bring to justice all the perpetrators, the organisers or the masterminds of these crimes. The 16 cases are: Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev (2013, Russian Federation); Mikhail Beketov (2013, Russian Federation); Hrant Dink (2007,…

Journalists groups, editors, media owners and press freedom campaigners are joining forces today, 2 November, to demand urgent action by the United Nations to tackle impunity for crimes against journalists. With figures showing the number of killings of journalists rising in comparison to the same period last year and impunity in 9 out of 10 cases, the unprecedented coalition of professional journalists’ organisations is calling on UN member states to back media industry demands for a convention on the protection of journalists. Representatives of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA), the European Broadcasting Union…

Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia would have been 54 today. On 16 October 2017, she died in a car bomb attack close to her home. The investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder has resulted only in the arrests of a few suspects, and no apparent attempt to identify the masterminds behind this assassination. Today the European Federation of Journalists remembers and honours her for being supremely brave and great inspiration for us all. Join our action! Write your message on the birthday card (below) and upload it on social media (Twitter, Facebook…). This evening, we’ll place all the cards at Daphne’s memorial…

Over 40 journalists have disappeared or been killed in the territory of Serbia since the break of former Yugoslavia in 1992, but only few investigations were concluded, even with interference and support from international organisations. The Commission for the Investigation of Murders of Journalists in Serbia has been working in solving the cases since 2012. The decision to expand its capabilities and resources to further the fight against impunity for murders of journalists was announced by the president of the Commission Veran Matic, on 2 August. The scope now is set to include murders of journalists on the territories of Kosovo and…

Ukrainian journalist Pavel Sheremet was murdered on 20 July 2016. On the second anniversary of his death, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) believes that the investigation into his assassination failed to look properly into who committed and commissioned the crime. “Two years after his assassination, we should consider the journalist’s murder as an impunity case. That is why the European Federation of Journalists asked the Council of Europe platform for the protection of journalism to change the status of the alert on Pavel Sheremet’s killing to the category of “impunity”. Ukraine will become one of the worst European States…

The European Court of Human Rights released a judgement on 17 July, stating that the investigation of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya‘s murder “failed to look properly into who commissioned the crime”. The Court decided that the Russian government violated the Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights and therefore, is due to pay 20,000 euros. The case was brought to the court by the family of the journalist, who was murdered in 2006. The press release of the European Court of Human Rights states: The Court found in particular that while the authorities had found and…

Impunity is when threats, attacks and crimes against journalists go unpunished. It results in a high level of fear, intimidation, censorship and self-censorship that undermines press freedom, the public right to know and leaves victims and their relatives powerless. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the International Federation of Journalists’ (IFJ) campaign to #endimpunity, which aims at holding governments and de facto governments accountable for their impunity records and denouncing any crimes targeting journalists that remain unpunished. Murder is the highest form of these crimes but all attacks targeting journalists that remain unpunished must be denounced. In Europe, the EFJ…

The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) have backed demands for the Ukrainian authorities to publish the results of their investigation into the killing of award-winning journalist Pavel Sheremet – a year after his murder in a car bomb on 20th July 2016. On the anniversary of the killing the IFJ/EFJ joined their affiliates the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) in condemning the grossly inadequate investigation by Ukrainian authorities. The EFJ/IFJ also call on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fulfill his promise of incorporating an independent international…

Following two cases of impunity and careless investigation in Ukraine, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) renews its calls for an end to impunity for crimes against journalists and action to protect the safety of media professionals in the country. The first case involves a TV crew of local TV station attacked in front of police officers – who didn’t intervene – on 10 June 2016 in Berdyansk Zaporizhia region. Journalists went to cover the illegal seizure of a hotel building, when the unidentified men in a military uniform beaten up reporter Volodymyr Holovatiy, took away the camera and seized…

Join us for a debate on International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI) to discuss how this matters to all of us also here in Brussels and in Europe. When: Thursday 27 October 2016, 12h30 – 14h30 Location: Press Club Brussels Europe (PCBE), Rue Froissart 95, 1000 Brussels Over 800 journalists were killed in the past 10 years in the world. In nearly all these cases their killers have never been brought to justice. To put an end to this, a 2013 resolution of the UN General Assembly on Safety of Journalists proclaimed November 2nd each year the International Day…